Safety razor with disposable wire-blade magazine and having honing means for the wire blade



J. J. FAYED Jan.l6,l968

SAFETY RAZOR WITH DISPOSABLE WIRE-BLADE MAGAZINE AND HAVING HONING MEANS FOR THE WIRE BLADE Original Filed March 1, 1962 IILII...

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INVENTOR. JAMES J. -FAYED FIGG fi/ba 9 ATTORN Y5 United States Patent 3,363,312 SAFETY RAZOR WITH DISPOSAELE WIRE- BLADE MAGAZINE AND HAVING HON- ING MEANS FOR THE WIRE BLADE James J. Fayed, 9110 Fairview Road, Silver Spring, Md. 20910 Continuation of application Ser. No. 176,570, Mar. 1, 1962. This application Mar. 7, 1966, Ser. No. 534,570 16 Claims. (Cl. 3040.1)

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A magazine-type safety razor which includes a shaving head, a blade magazine and an elongated handle portion, in which the magazine is a self-contained unit that is releasably secured to the upper end of the handle portion by a snap-action latching device to permit ready interchange of the blade magazine after the supply of blade contained in the magazine is exhausted. The shaving head, which may be unitary with the blade magazine, has a width substantially greater than the Width of the handle portion and is disposed offset to the substantially straight direction of the handle portion. The blade magazine includes a supply reel, a take-up reel and an actuating member connected with the take-up reel to advance the blade which, stored in the magazine, has a length several times the width of the shaving head. Springs may be provided in addition to a honing device in the blade magazine to hold the blade taut.

This application is a continuation application of my application Ser. No. 176,570, filed in the United States Patent Office on Mar. 1, 1962, now abandoned.

The present invention relates to safety razors, and more particularly to a magazine-type safety razor having a wire blade.

A magazine-type safety razor utilizing an elongated ribbon blade which may be advanced as portions thereof become dull is known in the prior art. In this known type of construction, the ribbon blade is wound upon a supply reel with one turn on top of the succeeding turn in a radial direction, and after use is similarly taken up upon the take-up reel. In contrast thereto, the present invention utilizes a wire blade which is wound upon a reel with successive turns of the wire blade abutting one another in the axial direction of the reel similar to the winding of a spool of thread.

The term wire blade as used throughout the specification and claims designates a relatively long wire element of very small cross-sectional area adapted to be utilized for cutting purposes. The blade is preferably formed from tempered rust-resistant steel wire of about to 30 gauge.

It will be appreciated that a wire blade in accordance with the present invention when Wound upon a reel occupies considerably less space than the same length of a wound ribbon-type blade. It is thus possible to achieve a magazine-type razor whose over-all size compares favorably with the size of conventional safety razors. It will also be appreciated that the wire blade requires considerably less metal for its manufacture than does an equivalent length of a ribbon-type blade.

In one embodiment of the present invention the razor comprises a handle portion and a factory-assembled shaving head and magazine assembly which is disposed of after the blade is used up, and which is releasably secured to the handle portion. When the blade has been expended, the entire shaving head and magazine assembly may be discarded and replaced in the handle portion by a new shaving head and magazine assembly. In such an embodiment, the blade may be placed under the proper 3,363,312 Patented Jan. 16, 1968 tension in the factory and no adjustment thereof by the user is required. The safety features of this arrangement are apparent since the user need not manually position or adjust the supply spool within the magazine and thus the chances of injury while making adjustments, or while shaving as the result of improper tension upon the blade are minimized. However, it is also within the purview of the present invention to provide a displaceable cover portion whereby the user may have access to the magazine to remove a used blade and substitute a fresh blade. Of course, in such an alternate embodiment, it is unnecessary to provide means for disengaging the magazine assembly from the handle portion.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide an improved magazine-type safety razor of small size.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved safety razor utilizing a wire blade which may be advanced as portions thereof become dull during use.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an improved magazine-type safety razor which includes a disposable shaver head and magazine assembly releasably secured to a handle portion.

A still further object of the present invention is to provide an improved magazine-type safety razor having a wire blade, and means for maintaining the blade under tension.

These and further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a front elevation of one embodiment in accordance with the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a side elevation of the embodiment shown in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a view similar to FIGURE 2 illustrating the shaver head and magazine assembly in position for insertion into the handle portion;

FIGURE 4 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view of a portion of FIGURE 1 encompassed in dot-dash circle A of FIGURE 1 illustrating the details of the means for releasably securing the shaving head and magazine assembly to the handle portion;

FIGURE 5 is a view taken in the direction of arrows 55 in FIGURE 2 through the top portion of the magazine assembly illustrating the details of the blade supply and take-up reels;

FIGURE 6 is a transverse vertical sectional view taken substantially along the line 66 in FIGURE 5; and

FIGURE 7 is a partial sectional view taken substantially along the line 77 in FIGURE 5 showing honing means for the wire blade.

Referring now to the drawing wherein like reference numerals designate similar elements throughout the several views, and more particularly to FIGURES 1 to 3; the safety razor in accordance with the present invention includes a shaving head and magazine assembly generally designated by reference numeral 10, and a handle portion 11 having a recess 12 adapted to detachably receive a stem portion 13 of the assembly 10. Stem portion 13 is provided on opposite sides thereof with locking spring elements 14 which, as shown more clearly in FIGURE 4, have their lower ends embedded in the material of stem portion 13. Stem portion 13 is constructed in a hollow manner and provided with apertures 15 in its side walls 18 through which upper, generally U-shaped portions of spring elements 14 project. Handle portion 11 is provided with elongated apertures 16 complementary to apertures 15 to enable spring elements 14 to project therethrough for manual actuation when it is desired to remove the assembly 10 for replacement in the manner described hereinafter.

Spring elements 14 are normally biased to project outwardly through apertures 15 and 16, and are provided at their upper ends with vertically extending fiange portions 17 pressing against the inner walls 18 of the side walls 18 of the stem portion 13 to firmly secure the assembly 10 within handle portion 11. When the assembly, 10 is to be removed, spring elements 14 are pressed inwardly so that flange portions 17 are disengaged from inner walls 18. To facilitate removal, spring elements 14 are provided with curved portions 19 which upon inward movement engage upwardly and inwardly inclined cam surfaces 20 at the open end of recess 12. Upon the application of an upward pulling force to the assembly 10 with respect to handle portion 11, cam surfaces 20, in conjunction with curved portions 19 of spring elements 14, are efiective to assist the manually applied force acting to press spring elements 14 inwardly whereby the assembly 10 may be withdrawn from recess 12. During insertion of a refill shaving head and magazine assembly, spring elements 14 will upon alignment with apertures 15 and 16 spring outwardly therethrough to effect securement of the refill assembly 10 to handle portion 11.

The arrangement of the shaving head and magazine assembly 10 is best illustrated in FIGURE where a supply reel 21 is rotatably mounted in a housing 31 and is adapted to feed blade 22 through a honing block 23 into shaving position upon a blade guide 24 which has a surface complementary to the contour of the rear surface of blade 22. After use, blade 22 is stored on takeup reel 25. Take-up reel 25 is turned manually by means of a knob 26 extending through a recess in the side of housing 31. 7

Supply reel 21 is provided with upper and lower axle stubs 27 and 28, respectively, which are rotatably received in corresponding recesses in the adjacent surfaces of housing 31 (FIGURE 6). One end of a leaf spring element 29 is secured to the upper surface of supply reel 21, and the other end of spring element 29 is secured to the cover portion of the assembly 10. Spring element 29 is constructed to press the lower surface of supply reel 21 into frictional engagement with the adjacent interior surface of the assembly with suflicient force to assist in preventing inadvertent unwinding of blade 22 from supply reel 21 and in maintaining blade 22 under the requisite tension required for shaving.

The honing block 23 is shown in greater detail in FIG- URE 7. In the illustrated embodiment, honing block 23 is adapted to apply only a very fine honing to the wire blade 22 which has been sharpened before installation on supply reel 21. Block 23 has a recess contoured complementary to the cross section of wire blade 22 to hone the sharpened edge portion of blade 22. Honing block 23 could also be constructed to hone the entire blade edge onto an essentially circular wire supplied by supply reel 21. The frictional contact between blade 22 and block 23 is also effective to resist inadvertent unwinding of blade 22 from supply reel 21, and to maintain blade 22 under tension. The resistance of block 23 to the passage of blade 22 may be suflicient to dispense with the provision of leaf spring element 29. It will also be appreciated that other suitable honing means such as roller members could be utilized in lieu of honing block 23.

In an analogous manner, a spring 30 presses take-up reel 25 against the inner surface of the side wall of housing 31 and by frictional engagement prevents inadvertent rotation of reel 25. When a portion of blade 22 becomes dull, it is merely necessary to initially push in on knob 26, and then turn the knob in a clockwise direction an amount sufiicient to bring an unused portion of the blade into the shaving position. Blade 22 may be provided with spaced indicia (not shown) to assist in taking up only the used portion of blade 22.

It is apparent that comparable backup preventing means could be substituted, for example, a plurality of ratchet teeth might be provided circumferentially around one end of reel 25 contacting a pawl element secured to an adjacent surface of the shaving head and magazine assembly 10 to enable reel 25 to rotate in only one direction.

A downwardly curved face engaging guide member 33 extends beneath the operative portion of blade 22 and blade guide 24 as is best shown in FIGURE 6. Face guide 33 permits the engagement of the cutting edge of blade 22 with whiskers or other hair elements to be severed, and may be provided with comb-like teeth to facilitate such engagement. An elongated slot 34 extends substantially the entire length of face guide 33 to afford means preventing the accumulation of shaving cream at blade 22.

While I have shown and described several embodiments in accordance with the present invention, it is understood that the same is not limited thereto but is susceptible of many changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the present invention and I, therefore, do not wish to be limited to the details shown and described herein, but intend to cover all such changes and modifications as are encompassed by the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A safety razor comprising a disposable magazine assembly including a housing portion and a lower end portion, a handle portion having wall portions defining a recess in one end thereof, means located near said one end and removably securing the lower end portion of said magazine assembly within said recess including aperture means in said wall portions and spring means secured to said end portion and normally projecting into said aperture means, a supply reel and a take-up reel rotatably mounted within said housing portion, blade means adapted to be passed from said supply reel to said take-up reel, and guide means to maintain said blade means in effective shaving position.

2. The safety razor according to claim 1, wherein aperture means are provided also in said end portion complementary to said first-mentioned aperture means, said spring means being biased to normally project through said aperture means.

3. The safety razor according to claim 2, wherein said.

blade means is a wire blade.

4. A safety razor, comprising a handle portion, a blade magazine and a shaving head, said blade magazine being a self-contained unit including blade means of a length to provide in effect several blades usable'in succession, first means in said magazine providing a supply of said blade means which is substantially uninterrupted over the length of said several blades, second means including a take-up reel for said blade means, external actuating means on said magazine operatively connected with said take-up reel to selectively advance said blade means from said first means to said second means by way of said shaving head, and third means in said magazine for preventing inadvertent unwinding of said blade means; and means including complementary latch means between said magazine and said handle portion for removably securing said magazine at said handle portion.

5. The safety razor according to claim 4, wherein said third means includes spring means operatively connected with at least one of said first and second means to frictionally hold the same against inadvertent movement thereof.

6. The safety razor according to claim 4, wherein said third means includes frictional constraining means for maintaining said blade means under tension.

7. A safety razor, comprising a handle portion, a blade magazine, and a shaving head normally fixed in its relative position to the blade magazine and to the handle portion and having face-engaging surface means of a' first length; said blade magazine being a self-contained unit including blade means of a second length several times said first length to provide in effect several blades usable in succession, first means in said magazine providing a supply of said blade means which is uninterrupted over said second length, second means including a take-up reel for said blade means, external actuating means on said magazine operatively connected with said take-up reel to selectively advance said blade means from said first means to said second means by way of said shaving head, and third means in said magazine for preventing inadvertent unwinding of said blade means and maintaining the latter under tension; and means including complementary snap-action latch means between said magazine and said handle portion for removably securing said magazine at said handle portion and to enable removal of said magazine exclusively by actuation of said snap-action latch means.

8. The safety razor according to claim 7, wherein said third means includes spring means operatively connected with at least one of said first and second means to frictionally hold the same against inadvertent movement thereof.

9. The safety razor according to claim 7, wherein said magazine includes guide means for said blade means with the part of the blade means used at any given time being disposed between said face-engaging surface means and said guide means.

10. The safety razor according to claim 9, wherein said third means includes frictional constraining means for maintaining said blade means under tension.

11. In a light-weight, magazine-type safety razor having a handle portion, a blade magazine and a shaving head, the improvement comprising a relatively long handle portion extending substantially rectilinearly in a first direction, a shaving head of substantially greater width than said handle portion and disposed angularly offset to said first direction, a magazine housing extending from said handle portion to said shaving head at an angle to said first direction, the side walls of said magazine housing flaring from the width of said handle portion substantially to the width of said shaving head, blade means in said magazine having a length several times the width of said shaving head, means for selectively advancing said blade means past said shaving head including a takeup reel in said magazine and external actuating means on said magazine for rotating said take-up reel; and further complementary snap-action means in adjacent parts of said handle portion and said magazine housing for removably securing said magazine on said handle portion and for releasing a magazine from said handle portion by mere snap-type actuation of said complementary snap-action means.

12. The safety razor according to claim 11, further comprising means in said magazine for preventing the inadvertent advancing of said blade means.

13. The safety razor according to claim 11, further comprising means for maintaining said blade means relatively taut.

14. The safety razor according to claim 13, wherein said last-mentioned means includes honing means.

15. The safety razor according to claim 14, further comprising cooperating face-engaging surface means and guide means for said blade means with the portion of the blade means used at any given time being disposed between said surface means and said guide means.

16. The safety razor according to claim 11, further comprising cooperating face-engaging surface means and guide means for said blade means with the portion of the blade means used at any given time being disposed between said surface means and said guide means, and wherein said further complementary snap-action means includes latch means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 896,383 8/1908 Hartness 30-51 1,540,373 6/1925 Squire 30-169 1,682,794 9/1928 Moore 30-40.1 1,713,079 5/1929 Hall 30-36 1,788,614 1/1931 Blackmore 30-36 2,053,642 9/1936 Steinmetz et al. 30-40.1 2,077,331 4/1937 Knopp 30-43.92 2,178,669 11/ 1939 Lougheed 30-43.92 2,292,931 8/1942 Dicke 30-36 2,297,566 9/1942 Laux 30-169 2,367,686 1/1945 Neidig 30-43.6 2,511,188 6/1950 Whipple 30-36 2,660,782 12/1953 Graef 30-40.1 2,672,683 3/1954 Weinberg 30-117 2,729,886 1/ 1956 De LaFontaine et al. 3040.1 2,731,662 1/1956 Mills 16-114 FOREIGN PATENTS 209,517 6/1960 Austria.

221,070 8/ 1942 Switzerland.

491,058 2/1954 Italy.

MYRON C, KRUSE, PrimaryExaminer. 

